Lucky By Alice Sebold Analysis

In the memoir, Lucky by Alice Sebold, the author flashes back to her experience of rape and abuse on her college campus. She demonstrates her triumph of a traumatizing experience and how she overcame the situation. The novel, explores her experiences after the rape as the traumatic event changed her as well as a transformation from the treatment of others. Throughout this essay, I will summarize the major events of the rape, the aftermath, reactions and experiences that the author discussed and give critical insight of my reaction to the novel.

The Rape

First, the book is set in 1981 in Syracuse, New York where seventeen-year old Alice Sebold is finishing her freshman year of college at Syracuse University. The reader is introduced to the

Once returning to the Syracuse University, several students whispered and stared as she walked through campus., Alice faced her rapist when walking to get something to eat, she learned his name was Gregory Madison and she immediately called her parents after the encounter. Later in the novel, Alice attends a hearing where she must relive her moments of the assault to the judge and jury members and it allows her to tell her side of the story. Alice waited for a pretrial hearing where she returned home for the holidays and met a boy that she had sex with. During her experience she struggled with her past and felt guilty afterwards. At this point in the novel, the reader becomes aware that she is still struggling with the psychological effects. Finally, the trial was set and was a close court room. Alice relived every detail of the crime and ultimately Gregory Madison was found guilty and charged with six accounts. After the trial, Alice began a new beginning she felt an urge to change and altered her image and desires. She began to date boys, made new friends such as a girl named Lila. Lila was also raped, and Alice felt as if she could help Lila with the aftermath of the crime. However, Lila gave up hope to find her rapist as she was tired of reliving the event. This decision ultimately affected both girls as Alice began to have nightmares of the rape and Lila felt as though being friends with Alice was a constant reminder. Ultimately Alice’s life changed, and she turned to drugs and alcohol to solve her problems. She realized that she was not healed from the rape and that writing the book was a way for her to cope and move on with her